Phowa Practice

(from The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche)

The Essential Phowa Practice

The most valuable and powerful of all practices I have found in
caring for the dying, one which I have seen an astonishing number
of people take to with enthusiasm, is a practice from the Tibetan
tradition called phowa (pronounced "po-wa"),
which means the transference of consciousness.

Phowa for dying people has been performed by friends, relatives,
or masters, quite simply and naturally, all over the modern
world--in Australia, America, and Europe. Thousands of people
have been given the chance to die serenely because of its power.
It gives me joy to make the heart of the phowa practice
now available to anyone who wishes to use it.

I want to emphasize that this is a practice that anyone at all
can do. It is simple, but it is also the most essential practice
we can do to prepare for our own death, and it is the main
practice I teach my students for helping their dying friends and
relatives, and their loved ones who have already died.

Practice One

First make sure you are comfortable, and assume the meditative
posture. If you are doing this practice as you are coming close
to death, just sit as comfortably as you are able, or practice
lying down.

Then bring your mind home, release, and relax completely.

In the sky in front of you, invoke the embodiment of whatever
truth you believe in, in the form of radiant light.
Choose whichever divine being or saint you feel close to. If you are a
Buddhist, invoke a buddha with whom you feel an intimate
connection. If you are a practicing Christian, feel with all
your heart the vivid, immediate presence of God, the Holy Spirit,
Jesus, or the Virgin Mary. If you don't feel linked with any
particular spiritual figure, simply imagine a form of pure golden
light in the sky before you.
The important point is that you consider the being you are visualizing
or whose presence you feel is the embodiment of the truth, wisdom, and
compassion of all the buddhas, saints, masters, and enlightened beings.
Don't worry if you cannot visualize them very clearly, just fill your heart
with their presence and trust that they are there.

Then focus your mind, heart, and soul on the presence you
have invoked, and pray:

Through your blessing, grace, and guidance,
through the power of the light that streams from you:
May all my negative karma, destructive emotions, obscurations,
and blockages be purified and removed,
May I know myself forgiven for all the harm I may have thought and done,
May I accomplish this profound practice of phowa,
and die a good and peaceful death,
And through the triumph of my death,
may I be able to benefit all other beings, living or dead.

Now imagine that the presence of light you have invoked is
so moved by your sincere and heartfelt prayer that he or she
responds with a loving smile and sends out love and compassion in
a stream of rays of light from his or her heart. As these touch
and penetrate you, they cleanse and purify all your negative
karma, destructive emotions, and obscurations, which are the
causes of suffering. You see and feel that you are totally
immersed in light.

You are now completely purified and completely healed by the
light streaming from the presence. Consider that your very body,
itself created by karma, now dissolves completely into light.

The body of light you now are soars up into the sky and
merges, inseparably, with the blissful presence of light.

Remain in that state of oneness with the presence for as
long as possible.

Practice Two

To do this practice even more simply, begin as before by
resting quietly, and then invoke the presence of the embodiment
of truth.

Imagine your consciousness as a sphere of light at your
heart, which flashes out from you like a shooting star, and
flies into the heart of the presence in front of you.

It dissolves and merges with the presence.
Through this practice you are investing your mind in the wisdom
mind of the Buddha or enlightened being, which is the same as
surrendering your soul into the nature of God.
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche says this is like casting a pebble into
a lake; think of it plummeting down into the water, deeper and
deeper. Imagine that through the blessing your mind is
transformed into the wisdom mind of this enlightened presence.

Practice Three

The most essential way to do the practice is this: Simply merge
your mind with the wisdom mind of the pure presence.
Consider: "My mind and the mind of the Buddha are one."

Choose whichever one of these version of the phowa feels more
comfortable, or has most appeal for you at any particular
moment. Sometimes the most powerful practices can be the most
simple. But whichever one you choose, remember that it is
essential to take the time now to become familiar with this
practice. How else will you have the confidence to do it for
yourself or others at the moment of death?
My master Jamyang Khyentse wrote, "If you meditate and practice
in this manner always, at the moment of death it will come
easier."

In fact you should be so familiar with the practice of phowa
that it becomes a natural reflex, your second nature. If you
have seen the film Gandhi, you will know that when he was
shot, his immediate response was to call out: "Ram...Ram!"
which is, in the Hindu tradition, the sacred name of God.
Remember that we never know how we will die, or if we will be
given the time to recall any kind of practice at all. What time
will we have, for example, if we smash our car into a truck at
100 mph on the freeway? There won't be a second then to think
about how to do phowa, or to check the instructions in this book.
Either we are familiar with the phowa or we are not. There is a
simple way to gauge this: Just look at your reactions when you
are in a critical situation or in a moment of crisis, such as an
earthquake, or in a nightmare. Do you respond with the practice
or don't you? And if you do, how stable and confident is your
practice?

I remember a student of mine in America who went out riding one
day. The horse threw her; her foot got stuck in the stirrup, and
she was dragged along the ground. Her mind went blank. She
tried desperately to recall some practice, but nothing at all
would come. She grew terrified. What was good about that terror
was that it made her realize that her practice had to become her
second nature. This was the lesson she had to learn; it is the
lesson, in fact, we all have to learn. Practice phowa as
intensively as you can, until you can be sure you will react with
it to any unforeseen event. This will make certain that whenever
death comes, you will be as ready as you can be.

Using the Essential Phowa Practice to Help the Dying

How can we use this practice to help someone who is dying?

The principle and the sequence of the practice are exactly the
same; the only difference is that you visualize the Buddha or
spiritual figure above the head of the dying person.

Imagine that the rays of light pour down onto the dying person,
purifying his or her whole being, and then he or she dissolves
into light and merges with the spiritual presence.

Do this practice throughout your loved one's illness, and
especially (and most important) when the person is breathing
their last breath, or as soon as possible after breathing stops
and before the body is touched or disturbed in any way. If the
dying person knows you are going to do this practice for them,
and knows what it is, it can be a great source of inspiration
and comfort.

Sit quietly with the dying person, and offer a candle or light in
front of a picture or statue of Buddha or Christ or the Virgin
Mary. Then do the practice for them. You can be doing the
practice quietly, and the person need not even know about it; on
the other hand, if he or she is open to it, as sometimes dying
people are, share the practice and explain how to do it.

Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying
(San Francisco, CA: Harper, 1992), pp. 214-218.